


I Want You Here

by agreatwave



Series: Where in the World is Patrick Brewer? [5]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: 5x04 The Dress, Attempted phone sex, Canon Compliant, Communication, Hungover David, M/M, Miscommunication, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23498749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agreatwave/pseuds/agreatwave
Summary: Patrick blinks when he sees the name on his screen.David.David is calling him in the middle of the night. Patrick answers quickly, pulse picking up as he sits up in bed.“David?”“PATRICK!”Patrick immediately jerks his head back from the phone, fumbling for the volume button. Ok, so David’s fine. He’s justverydrunk.Missing Scenes from 5x04 The Dress
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Series: Where in the World is Patrick Brewer? [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622923
Comments: 39
Kudos: 338





	I Want You Here

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back! This is the fifth story in a series of short ficlets exploring each episode of Schitt's Creek from which Patrick has been missing since his introduction to the show. Stories can be read chronologically or on their own.
> 
> This one took me AGES, which I was not expecting since it was actually the first idea I came up with and the entire reason I started this series. Writer’s block really hit me, but here it finally is, something to tide you over until Tuesday. I have a huge soft spot for cozy hungover David in the last scene of The Dress, so this really all sparked from that. Go look at him in that last scene again and tell me you don’t want to bundle him up in a quilt and feed him greasy food!

**I Want You Here**

**5x04 The Dress**

Patrick huffs loudly as he flips over for the fifteenth time that night. He’s been tossing and turning for hours, unable to find sleep even though he knows he’ll need his wits about him tomorrow since David has the day off and Patrick will be holding down the store alone. He finally caves and checks his phone, groaning when he sees the time. He rakes his hands through his hair, trying to decide whether to continue his fruitless attempts at sleep or whether it would be better to just get up and read for a bit, try to quiet his mind. His body is exhausted, but his brain is going a mile a minute and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Patrick thinks he might know why that is, even if he’s reluctant to linger on the thought for too long.

The thing is, David’s not here. David’s not here, and Patrick’s a little worried about that.

Everything is fine. It is. David kissed him goodbye outside the cafe last night, and somehow managed to make an innuendo about cherry blossoms when he texted him from the road this afternoon. It’s just a little concerning that this is the first night Patrick’s spending in his new apartment, the first time they would have the space all to themselves, and David isn’t here. David decided not to be here.

Their entire relationship has been an endless struggle for privacy. Between David sharing a room with his sister and an unbelievably thin wall with his parents and Patrick sharing a house with Ray, it’s amazing they’ve managed to have sex at all, let alone as much as they have. Patrick may have started the relationship with a certain set of standards he thought were fairly reasonable (no sex at work, no sex in the back of a car pulled over on the side of the highway, no sex with a hand over David’s mouth because Ray was home and could walk in on them at literally any moment), but those had quickly been abandoned out of necessity. The novelty was fun, at first, but Patrick really would prefer privacy and time and a bed to spread David out on most of the time.

It’s not just about sex. He wants to be able to be alone with David. _Really_ alone, in their own space with their own things, where they can talk without worrying about being interrupted or overheard, where they can wake up slowly together on Mondays when the store is closed, where Patrick can cook for David, and David can show Patrick all his favourite movies and complain about Patrick’s woefully inadequate knowledge of the romantic comedy genre. 

Things have been good since David’s surprisingly graceful reaction to their misunderstanding about the apartment. Maybe a little too good, if Patrick thinks about it honestly. As in, it hasn’t really come up again. And maybe Patrick should have been a little more worried about that in the weeks that passed since their initial miscommunication, since he watched David’s face fall for an instant before he gamely pulled himself back together in a way Patrick isn’t sure he would have been able to do when they first met. It was just . . . easier to let it go, easier to accept it when David told him it was ok, easier to put it out of his mind. He told himself that David had just been caught up in the moment or had just been going along with what he thought Patrick wanted, because the alternative, that David might have gotten somewhere faster than Patrick for once and not been rewarded for that, makes something sharp twist in Patrick’s stomach.

Patrick flips over onto his belly, pulling his pillow over his head and pressing his cheek directly into the cool sheets. He’ll see David tomorrow when he gets home, or maybe even at lunch, and David will smile at him or say something snarky with a sparkle in his eye or drape himself over Patrick’s shoulders like a cape, and Patrick will realize that David really just wanted to see the cherry blossoms with his best friend and that’s all there is to it. Satisfied, Patrick feels his muscles start to relax and go heavy and lets himself sink further into the mattress.

~~~

He’s been asleep for all of ten minutes before the silence is broken by his phone vibrating obnoxiously on the nightstand. Patrick lets out a frustrated growl and flips over to grab it. Ray had already called once as his realtor to ask him how he was finding the new rental and once as his friend to tell him that he already missed him. If he’s calling again, Patrick’s not sure how polite he’s going to manage to be. Patrick blinks when he sees the name on his screen.

David.

David is calling him in the middle of the night. Patrick answers quickly, pulse picking up as he sits up in bed.

“David?” 

“PATRICK!”

Patrick immediately jerks his head back from the phone, fumbling for the volume button. Ok, so David’s fine. He’s just _very_ drunk. Patrick can feel an endeared smile sliding reluctantly onto his face as relief slips over him.

“Hi baby,” he says at a normal human volume, letting himself use the pet name that David will roll his eyes at when he’s sober, but accept unquestioningly when he’s tipsy. 

He’d stop using it entirely if it wasn’t for the way David blushes with pleasure even as he complains.

“Patrick, I was abducted earlier, but now it’s ok because of Mariah,” David babbles happily, then swears as he audibly drops his keys.

Patrick bites down on a smile.

“Ok, I’m going to assume this wasn’t a real abduction, but just on the off chance, you need to give me more information right now.”

Things like kidnapping seem much less far-fetched now than they might have at one point in Patrick’s life, before he met Alexis Rose.

“What would _you_ call it if _your_ so-called ‘best friend’ lured you to a remote location with the promise of cherry blossoms and twelve hours later, here you are, in a strange hotel hallway, having seen nary a single blossom?” David shoots back indignantly.

And very loudly.

“David, are you in your room yet?” Patrick asks patiently, wary of his boyfriend receiving a noise complaint and possibly even a visit from hotel security if he keeps shouting about kidnapping in the hallway.

“Yup,” David says cheerfully. “You know a few years ago, I would think this hotel is disgusting, but it’s so much nicer than the motel that it might as well be the Four Seasons. I have a room all to myself!”

Patrick’s smile dims a bit. He wishes he could say he was as happy to have a room to himself tonight. He loves tipsy David, and he’s sad he’s not there with him.

“Good. That sounds really good. Gonna maybe have a glass of water before bed?”

“Don’t want a glass of water,” David says sulkily, mood shifting on a dime. “Wanna suck your cock.”

Patrick’s feels heat prickle under his skin, his cock twitching with interest even though he was barely even awake two minutes ago. His hand automatically moves to touch, just resting lightly over the bulge in his pajama pants. He can clearly picture David’s pout, which does nothing to help. 

“Don’t think you can tonight, baby,” Patrick replies lightly, his voice deeper than it was a moment ago.

There’s one other time David doesn’t object to being called baby.

“But I _want_ to. You want me to too, don’t lie!” David huffs.

Patrick tries and fails to pretend to himself that he’s not helplessly turned on whenever David is petulant.

“I always want you to suck my cock,” Patrick agrees. “You’re so good at it, aren’t you?”

David makes a high, breathy noise of affirmation, and Patrick is officially fully hard. He lets his fingers wrap around his cock through the thin fabric of his pajamas. Patrick’s never had phone sex before, always thought it would be more awkward than sexy, but David has a history of expanding Patrick’s sexual horizons in mindblowingly pleasurable ways, so he’s definitely open to it.

At that very moment, David lets out a very loud yawn.

Patrick’s head thunks back against the wall, a breathy laugh escaping his lips.

“Sleepy?” Patrick asks, taking his hand off his cock.

“Mmhmm, sleepy,” David repeats, clearly having lost the thread of their previous conversation.

“Time for bed then.”

“Patrick?” David says sweetly, and Patrick couldn’t love him more.

“Yes, David?”

“Will you stay on the phone til I fall asleep?” He asks drowsily, his voice further away.

Patrick smiles, nestling down under the covers again and putting his phone on speaker, laying it down next to him on David’s - on the other pillow.

“Of course I will. Sweet dreams, David.”

“Love you,” David mumbles, muffled like he’s mashing his face into a pillow.

Patrick’s heart skips a beat. It’s not that David doesn’t say it; he does. Not as often as Patrick does, but he says it now. Still, it’s pretty rare for him to say it first.

“Love you too, baby,” Patrick whispers.

It’s not long before Patrick hears David’s breath even out, and he quietly ends the call, pulling the covers up over his shoulder to finally get some sleep, mind much more at ease.

Two minutes later he tosses the covers off again.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Patrick begrudgingly flips over to jerk off.

~~~

When Patrick hasn’t heard from David by noon the next day, he decides to use his lunch break to drive over to the motel and check on his presumably very hungover boyfriend. Because he doesn’t have a death wish, he stops at the cafe first to order some greasy breakfast food (mostly hashbrowns, no eggs) in case David hasn’t eaten yet.

Patrick can already hear David’s parents shouting excitedly about something when he gets out of the car, and he approaches David’s door hesitantly, clutching the takeout bag in one hand and knocking as quietly as he can with the other.

When David opens the door he looks miserable and beautiful. 

Patrick can now hear the extent of the noise coming through the flimsy door to the next room and is also treated to the sound of Alexis talking cheerfully on her phone at her desk. Patrick looks back at David, standing in the doorway in his hoodie, sweatpants, and uggs, looking cuddly and grumpy, and feels everything inside him click into place the way it does every time he sees him.

“Hi,” Patrick says, kissing David next to his left eye.

David sways into it tiredly.

“How are we feeling?” Patrick says, because he can’t resist teasing David just a little bit.

David scowls and Patrick kisses him on the other temple in wordless apology. In the next room, Moira lets out a particularly shrill screech, and Patrick’s smile fades as David winces.

“David, why didn’t you just come over to my place? You could have slept it off there.”

“I’m fine,” David say tiredly, rubbing his temples and pulling back from Patrick a bit.

Patrick frowns. David normally wants to be coddled when he’s hungover. 

“C’mon, let’s get you out of here. I can drive you to the apartment on my way back to the store so you can have a nap or watch Netflix or whatever you want. Come with me,” Patrick implores gently, reaching up to brush back David’s hair.

“Ok,” David says, sighing and briefly turning his face into the cool of Patrick’s palm.

While David is getting a bag together, Patrick makes eye contact with Alexis, who’s still on the phone, but fixes him with a meaningful look he can’t quite interpret. He glances back at her before they close the door, but she’s not looking anymore. 

They don’t talk on the way home. David presses his forehead into the cool glass, arms wrapped around himself, and Patrick carefully avoids potholes.

“Here,” Patrick says when they pull up, handing David the takeout bag.

“Thank you,” David says quietly.

“I’ll be home in a few hours. I know it’s not all decorated yet, but the furniture is set up at least, and the kitchen,” Patrick continues, not quite ready to leave him yet.

“Ok. Thanks,” David says again in the same muted tone, putting his hand on the door handle.

“David, I gave you a key for a reason. You know you're welcome here,” Patrick urges without quite knowing why he’s saying it.

David’s shoulders tense and his brow furrows.

“I’m not just going to let myself in when you’re not there!” He exclaims.

“Why not?” Patrick asks, exasperated.

“Ugh, my head is pounding, can we just talk about this later,” David says, frustrated.

“Ok, yeah, of course. Sorry,” Patrick soothes. 

David gets out of the car with a half-hearted wave, but Patrick leans across the passenger seat to grab his hand and squeezes it.

“I’ll be home soon. I missed you,” he says sincerely, looking up at David from inside the car.

David’s left dimple makes an appearance, and Patrick feels the tension he didn’t even realize was building in his shoulders lessen.

“Missed you too,” David says, ducking his head and shutting the door.

Patrick waits to make sure he gets inside and drives back to the store feeling unsettled and distracted. He thinks about texting David several times throughout the day when things get slow, but it’s probably better to wait until he gets home. Besides, David might be sleeping. Patrick counts down the seconds until closing.

~~~

When Patrick gets home, David is sitting on his couch dressed in the same soft loungewear from this morning, clutching a mug of tea and looking rumpled and sweet. Patrick’s breath catches a little.

“Well, this is a nice sight to come home to,” Patrick says fondly as he toes off his shoes by the door.

David blinks up at him, obviously having only recently woken up. Patrick pads over to drop a kiss on his crown before popping the buttons at his collar, wandering into the bedroom as he pulls off his shirt. David turns around, resting his chin on the back of the couch to watch him undress, humming with pleasure when Patrick strips down to just his boxer briefs. Patrick chuckles, catching his eye. He grabs a fresh t-shirt and sweatpants, getting dressed quickly. He makes himself a cup of tea with the still hot water David boiled and comes to sit next to his boyfriend on the couch. 

“Hi.”

“Hi,” David says, peering at him over the rim of his mug.

Patrick puts his untouched tea down on the end table, and turns to face David squarely.

“I want you here. Anytime you want to be here,” he says, cutting to the chase.

David sighs and leans over to put his own mug down next to Patrick’s. He reaches over and gently rests his hand on top of Patrick’s where it rests on his knee, rubbing his knuckles soothingly.

“Patrick,” he says carefully, “we don’t live together.”

Patrick frowns.

“I know. I thought - I thought you were ok with that.”

“I am. I mean. It was . . . embarassing, and I’m not going to say it wasn’t a nice idea to have for a couple of days. But it’s fine. Really, I get it,” David says, making fleeting eye contact.

“But if you don’t want to live with me,” he starts again.

Patrick opens his mouth to protest.

“Yet,” David adds perfunctorily, rolling his eyes. “If you don’t want to live with me _yet_ , it can’t be . . . like I live with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you want me to live with you, if you want me to move in with you here, or if you want to, I don’t know, get a place together or whatever,” David flushes, dropping his gaze like maybe he’s making assumptions, so Patrick reaches out and grabs his other hand, squeezing to indicate he should continue.

Of course, he wants to get a place with David, preferably somewhere with three bedrooms so that they can have a guestroom and a whole room just for David’s sweaters. 

“If you want that, you have to tell me, because what I’m really just not interested in doing is that thing where I _feel_ like I’m living with you and for all intents and purposes I _am_ living with you, but I’m not “officially” or whatever. Because I’ve done that before. And it sucks,” David says bluntly.

If pressed, Patrick would have to admit he’s at least a little bit uncomfortable having this conversation. He comes from a family that expresses love easily and often, but generally avoids confronting more difficult emotions until they become impossible to avoid. But even through his discomfort, he’s proud of David and so elated at how far they’ve come together that they can have conversations like these and not be scared of everything falling apart. Patrick pushes aside thoughts of the bigger conversation they might need to have soon, and one of the main unspoken reasons he’s not moving in with David now. One problem at a time.

“Ok, I get that,” Patrick says slowly. “How do we - what does avoiding that actually look like in practice?”

“Just- just, I don’t know, there have to be like. Like ok, so maybe I’ll stay at the motel at least three nights a week, and maybe I won’t use my key to get in if you’re not there.”

“One night a week,” Patrick bargains.

“Patrick,” David says exasperatedly, but Patrick can see the smile threatening at the corners of his mouth.

“Or as much as you want, whatever,” Patrick backtracks quickly, sounding remarkably like his boyfriend.

“Two nights a week. At least. But probably more sometimes,” David stresses, raising his eyebrows.

“Also, I _want_ you to use the key when I’m not there, otherwise what’s the point of you even having it? I want you to be able to use the apartment when I’m not here if you need some space from your family,” Patrick explains.

David is trying not to look pleased (and failing), so Patrick knows the conversation is going well.

“Ok, then I won’t use my key when you’re not here without telling you I’m using it,” David counters.

“Deal.”

“Deal.”

Somehow, they’re grinning at each other, relieved to finally be on the same page, and then Patrick is kissing David, soft and hot and God, how is it always so good after all this time -

David breaks free of the kiss, his hands rubbing over Patrick’s shoulders.

“Ok, if I’m going to be spending that much time here, I think it’s only fair that I have a strong presence in the decor.”

Patrick drops his head so his forehead is pressing into David’s sternum, still clutching him around the waist.

“I know what you like and what you don’t like, and I think I can merge our aesthetics in a pleasing way that doesn’t undermine your whole masc math nerd vibe,” David continues heedlessly.

“David,” Patrick says, lifting his head and capturing David’s face between his hands. “We both know I’m going to let you decorate my apartment. I already picked the bed frame you liked even though it was ridiculously expensive. And I know you’re going to make it beautiful _and_ stay within the budget. But I’ve basically been hard since 2:30 am, so I would really like if we could continue this conversation later.”

David stares at Patrick, a flush sitting high on his perfect cheekbones.

“Ok,” He says weakly, smoothing his hands over Patrick’s forearms. “I think we could do something about that as long as you promise to never bring up the fact that I drunk dialed you after one day away from you and then fell asleep immediately after initiating phone sex ever again.”

Patrick’s smile takes over his whole face. He kisses David again, scorching and adoring.

“I make no promises,” he says, swallowing David’s resulting groan with a grin. 

~~~

Rules get broken. David stays more nights than he said he would. After they get engaged, he has more sweaters at Patrick’s than he does in his motel room. He even uses his key once without telling Patrick, but to be fair, it’s for a sex surprise. But he never, not once, doubts that Patrick wants him there, and when they do finally buy a perfect house on a perfect street in the perfect town for them, there’s nothing more official than both their names on the mortgage.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, all the living together and house stuff was written before last week’s episode, but I added the little coda at the end after watching it. Hope you enjoyed! Your comments are so appreciated. Wishing health and safety for you and your loved ones during this time!


End file.
